There is no shortage of talented, trailblazing, and even transcendent Iranian filmmakers, but arguably none are commercially accessible as Asghar Farhadi (as evidenced by his two Academy Awards). His combination of the subtlety and nuance of Iranian drama and naturalism with the ability to conjure up tension from everyday situations is once again on display in his latest film. A Hero won the Grand Prix award at Cannes in 2021 before it was purchased by Amazon Studios – one of the best reasons to have Amazon Prime right now is the collection of Farhadi films that you can stream on the service.
Like most Farhadi films, the optimal approach is to go in completely blind. But if you need a little more encouragement, the barebones premise is this: a heavily indebted man finds a bag of gold coins while he’s on leave from debtor’s prison. The essential elements of it will feel familiar to those who have seen Farhadi’s other films: an everyman protagonist, a morality play that rewards the eagle-eyed, sharp-minded viewer, peeling back the different layers and different perspectives, with the subtly creeping twists and turns, consequences of earlier actions and decisions (often for the right or noble intentions), until the mounting internal tension explodes into some kind of physical climax.
We all have the tendency to think that we’re the main characters in our lives, and that what happens to us is more consequential and important than what happens to other people. The main character here is Rahim Soltani, played by the excellent Amir Jadidi, who looks and feels like a real person. He has a little bit of a crooked shitheel smile, so while you believe that he’s a genuinely nice guy, he also has a deep yearning to be praised and respected. Like most people, his actions are the cumulative result of all those different, and sometimes conflicting, motives and intentions. In reality, most people aren’t black-and-white good or bad people, but exist in a pretty large grey area. Soltani is a good guy, but also a total sad sack.
A Hero examines what it’s like to tell the same story over and over again, with slightly different versions each time, and how that can rapidly spin out of control. At one point in time, Soltani is told “you’re either very smart or you’re very simple.” The truth is, he is probably somewhere in between, or maybe even both things at the same time. Empathy and blame are two sides of the same coin.
Farhadi’s film is about another complex moral dilemma, and it’s another masterpiece to be chewed on, rewatched, and relitigated. Most “unraveling” films about someone coming across a bag of money might lead to thrilling chase sequences and bloody results, if you’re watching a Coen brothers film. For Farhadi, though, the outcome is much more interior, with the growing pit of uneasiness deep inside your stomach. There’s a memorable line when Soltani protests to an accuser “I didn’t lie!” But the matter-of-fact response to him is: “But you didn’t tell the truth.” A Hero is a movie that exists in the space between those two statements, between right and wrong, truth and deceit, a hero and a villain.
Streaming now on Amazon Prime.
